


Afterwards

by jaycee922



Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-01 05:51:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaycee922/pseuds/jaycee922
Summary: This is the first chapter of a multi chaptered story about the continuing journey of Klaus and Elijah Mikaelson.  The first chapter will be Haylijah centric and does dovetail into the the other fics Dancing and Blood Lust that i have written.  They  can also all be read as standalone fictions.I am trying to get the characterisation right in addition to adding to the story so your comments are most welcome on this.I hope that you enjoy.





	1. Rebirth.

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own these characters and will only be borrowing them for a while for my own and hopefully your pleasure too.

Elijah woke suddenly.

He kept his eyes closed to scan his surroundings using his other senses. His face was cushioned upon a bed of leaves and he could smell the slightly sweet rotting aroma from under his head. It wasn’t unpleasant. He couldn’t hear another heart beat or breaths that signified the proximity of another being. He sat up quickly and opened his eyes. It was night time, but he could see clearly through the trees of a vast woodland.

He was still vampire then! 

He quickly stood up and backed into the nearest out cropping of trees. Old habits die hard! Had he a broadsword in his hand he would have adopted a defensive stance. 

He tried to think of his last memory. His mind, his memories they were sporadic, like a spluttering engine. He could remember lights and smells, sparking, ashes rising into the night, but not the acrid smell of cooking flesh, mostly the sharp smell of disintegration. Similar to the smell his mother and Dahlia’s death had left behind, he remembered that. Was that then his fate? He knew he was vampire and that his name was Elijah, Elijah Mikaelson. 

His mind trod a similar track, this had happened to him before, those events were just on the edge of his consciousness.

He clearly recalled snatches or words and fragments, spoken in emotional tones, laced with sorrow and the salty tang of tears. 

‘please let’s not……’

‘I agree let’s not….’

‘effective….shorter form’

‘………by your side’

‘peace…darkness,’

‘we face it together,’

‘love…..so grateful,’

‘it’s been a glorious ride Niklaus, and my greatest honour.’

‘We face it together.’

He had watched blue grey eyes as they glazed over. He knew those other eyes had mirrored his own, the world had become dim around the edges at first. He had raised his eyes briefly upwards to watch the ash and sparks as they flew into the inky night sky aided by the breezy night. He felt peaceful and serene. 

He had thought ‘goodbye Elijah Mikaelson’.

Then, following a rush of light, he had woken up here in this wood at night. 

He couldn’t see any ashes nor sparks anymore, and the night was considerably warmer than it had been, he was warm now, wearing a great outer coat. The air smelled differently too, of trees and woods and rotted leaf mulch and water, as opposed to the sweet and smoky smells of a city. He could taste water in the air and hear the faint noises of frogs and small wildlife. 

Then he smelled it, smoke. More specifically burning woodsmoke a fire smoldering and nearly out. He turned his body abruptly and moved with supernatural speed through the wood towards the fire. 

He was forgetting something, it was nagging in the back of his mind. What had he said to that other man, when he had watched the light fade from his eyes. Niklaus. Yes, that was the name, his brother. His younger brother in blood, and time who had seen, with him, the passage of a millenium. He had assured his brother that they would be together, yet they weren’t.

Had he died? He wasn’t certain if he had or if this was some kind of witchcraft. Names he could only just recall floated through his mind, Freya and Davina. He wasn't sure yet of their connection to him, but he knew they must be, else why would he recall names with such precision. He wasn’t even sure that this had the right smell for witchcraft, this wooded place; and, where was Niklaus? He didn’t want to call out in case things weren’t as they seemed. 

Suddenly, behind him, he heard the crunch of a boot and a voice rich and deep. 

‘Well, well, well, if it ain’t Elijah Mikaelson,’

Elijah turned and looked into the deep dark eyes of a man of similar height with long shaggy hair, wearing a lopsided grin. Jackson, yes Jackson that was his name. Elijah knew he should dislike him for some reason, but he couldn’t remember what that was just now, and so he just smiled back.

‘I’m guessin’ that your memories haven’t returned fully yet. That being the case, I won’t take you to see my wife just yet.’ Jackson emphasized the wife bit. Elijah immediately knew that was why he didn’t like him and touched the corner of his mouth thoughtfully. 

‘But’ he continued, ‘I know that she’s been waitin’ for you, knew that when I married her, she sure as hell ain’t changed her mind in all the time between then and now. Damned woman. ‘

‘So’ Jackson turned and walked towards the fire smell ‘follow me Elijah, lets get this over with.’

Elijah turned and followed the man, he felt he could trust him and was starting to remember some of the events that included this man, he just wasn't totally sure of their order yet. 

Receiving a heart in a box at the Abattoir and his absolute relief at smelling that it was Jackson’s heart once the box had been opened. 

Running with the man in his arms at vampire speed with the explosion chasing at his heels all the way out of the warehouse. Then coming back to the abattoir with the man and a very relieved Hayley who had looked Elijah over first before asking Jackson how he was. He had felt her eyes appraise his filthy, burnt suit from top to toe. 

He also remembered Hayley’s whispered words about her betrothal to this man, and Elijah’s affront at Hayley’s seeming lack of choice. On impulse he had backed her into the nearest wall to kiss her and declare that she would always have a choice. Christ, he remembered that very clearly. 

He knew who Jackson was talking about now, his wife Hayley, the woman that he, Elijah Mikaelson had loved on sight and still loved with all his heart. 

The woman in question, Hayley was sitting round the campfire watching the embers die. In this place and with these people she was Andrea Lebonair. Sometimes she liked to be Andrea and watch Jackson, her parents and Mary laugh and exchange stories round the fire. They all liked to gather around the campfire in the clearing in front of the bayou. 

Mists rolled in off of the water and she could see the land and woods on the other side. There had been a disturbance a short while ago. Nothing major just a shifting of things, something that she hadn’t felt before, it had felt to her a bit like she had suddenly forgotten to do something, like turning a light off or leaving a kettle boiling. Jackson had said that the shifting was someone or more than one someone passing over to their reality. Not the otherside anymore, but another reality that she had found out she could shape sometimes. A reality where there was peace and forgiveness and love. 

Not everyone on this side was with Hayley and her family. She had seen Mikael and Esther from a distance with Ansel. She had avoided them. She wasn’t interested in making anything right with them. But, the longer that she had been in this place she had had time to reflect upon her life and the things she had done, and the things that had been done to her, she had forgiven so much and in doing so had also forgiven Mikael and Esther. She wasn’t however, ready to spend time with them just yet. 

Hayley felt that she was at peace though, and could look at her daughter and see her if she wanted to but only when she visited the scrying caves.

She could still see the living in swirling pools of water and if she concentrated hard enough she could be with them for a very short while. The only frustration was that she couldn’t communicate and if they saw her then she was transported immediately back to the caves. 

She had also visited the caves to see Elijah and Klaus. She had seen their lives since she had left them and had wept unconsolably as she witnessed Elijah retrieving his memories. She had wanted to scream with him at the pain she could feel, until the scrying pool had gone black and green and greys had once again washed across its liquid surface. She hadn’t gone there again, nor had she told Jackson that she had visited. It was Mary and Eve who had walked over to a distant and saddened Hayley, they had put their arms round her and Eve had murmured ‘it’s the vampire ain’t it?’. Hayley had only been able to nod sadly as the tears rolled down her cheeks. ‘He wants to be here with you, doesn’t he,’ Eve had stated. That was an obvious truth.

Now she could feel a disturbance. It could only mean that someone she knew was going to pass over into this world. She hoped it would be Elijah, she knew that if he did find his way to her, he would maybe stay a while, but he would also have to find Klaus whether that be in the scrying pool or in spirit. She was not sure how this worked, nor how people got to this reality or even if everyone got to this reality. No one here seemed to be able to tell her either and they certainly did not want to leave especially those that had been present during the collapse of the otherside. 

Hayley could hear that Jackson was walking through the woods and then stopped and started to speak to someone, they were too far away for her to hear the conversation properly. She strained her hearing and sent out her supernatural senses to try to determine who the new person was. Likely they would be in shock depending on the means of their death, as she had been totally numb for some days after her death, this would mean that they would have only partial memories of what had happened. 

She didn’t know why, but she felt such astonishing sadness for the end of this life, for any lives really but somehow this seemed to deeply affect her. 

Her hearing caught the end of a conversation, it wasn’t so much the words that she could hear as the timbre of the voice and the cadence of speech. 

Suddenly she was standing up, her feet running towards Jackson and the other person. Long before she could see them she started to smell cedar and sandalwood and an expensive waft of cologne. She knew that smell, yes, she knew that smell very well and knew exactly who smelt like that too. She could still remember being wrapped up in that smell and her feeling of utter peace and tranquility. 

From a distance Hayley saw a man in a knee length outer coat and a dark suit with the moonlight catching the metal of a pocket watch. He always liked to carry that watch in the breast pocket of his perfectly tailored waistcoat. Klaus had given it to him, it was an antique. Much like him, at that thought Hayley smiled. 

Hayley picked up speed and started to run towards Elijah and Jackson. Seeing them both together walking and quietly talking made her unexpectedly reticent. She stopped and walked up to the pair and greeted Jackson and then looked into a pair of coffee coloured eyes, eyes that had haunted her dreams, those same eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. His face, oh god he looked at her with recognition and then his face crumpled and he fell to his knees hands out, reaching towards her. Oh god, she had to look away and cover the face with the back of her shaking hand. 

Then Elijah had placed his hands on his knees, sighed deeply with his head hung on his chest. He got to his feet and looked her squarely in the eye then, no shirking from this task. 

‘Forgive me, please forgive me,’ Elijah had whispered. 

Two single tears then began a steady roll down his cheeks as he silently implored her to forgive him. 

Jackson looked from Hayley to Elijah and back again and excused himself walking back towards the campfire and the bayou clearing. He nodded to Hayley when he passed her and muttered that he knew that both she and Elijah had an awful lot to talk about. 

Jackson wasn’t critical of her and had told her when she had first passed over that he had long ago forgiven her for loving Elijah Mikaelson, after all you can’t help whom you love, can you. Whilst that comment had made Hayley sad and full of regret, she also knew that he was right. Elijah had been the love of her life. She had loved him on sight and had never ever stopped. 

Hayley looked at the man on his knees who was silently looking at her one hand braced on the forest floor and the other across the lower part of his face. He looked at once unutterably sad and full of regret. Hayley knelt-down with him onto the forest floor and pulled his hand away from his face, he didn’t resist. He just slowly raised his head and whispered ‘forgive me’ again so quietly that she had to strain to hear it. 

Just as slowly Hayley pulled Elijah into her arms. It felt good to be surrounded by his body, his smell again. She closed her eyes and silently wept with him and for him. 

She knew, that without being told that he needed to find his brother in this place, as Klaus as well as she were the other parts of his ancient being and they would always be tethered together. 

There was no Elijah without Klaus and Hayley also was coming to realise that she was also not complete without them either. 

‘Now,’ she said firmly, ‘what about that dance'. 

Elijah Mikalson, stood, turned away from her, held out his hand palm up and looked back into her face. Hayley, eyes shining with love and unsaid things placed her hand palm down into his and whirled through his arm clasping his shoulder. 

Both of them smiled at each other and moved together in the moonlight as far off music drifted to the wooded glade through the trees.


	2. Dance with a wolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second part of Afterwards. This is a follow on directly from the first chapter and explores what Elijah and Hayley may have talked about in those first moments and dance.

Hayley and Elijah glided around the wooded glade, the faint strains of a lone guitar guiding their movements. Hayley placed her hand on Elijah’s shoulder and he had clasped a flat hand to the small of her back. They swayed backwards and forwards and Hayley leaned in to Elijah’s neck and breathed in, she had missed this smell. She could feel Elijah smile and reposition his hand higher up her back. Slowly, oh so slowly, he moved his head back from her until he could see her face. 

‘I have missed you, more than I can say.’ With that statement Elijah smiled, and kissed Hayley lightly on the mouth. 

‘Well Mr Mikaelson, of course you have, ‘ Hayley laughed and then returned Elijah’s light kiss with a longer more passionate one of her own. 

‘I don’t know where to begin, but I promised Niklaus I would find him, but for now I am content to spend time here with you and your pack.’ Elijah stated. 

That said, he turned Hayley in his arms and moved with her towards the nearest tree. 

His kiss was long and full of feeling. It made Hayley sad for the long life that had been lost. Elijah had never been a fast mover and she knew from his touches and the way that he was moving her body that he had missed her above everyone. He may have said that he wanted to find Niklaus, but Elijah's first stop had been here in this place with her and her wolves. 

No one could call Elijah Mikaelson un-imaginative when it came to sex, after all he had had a thousand years of experience, and in that moment Hayley was grateful for every year. His kisses and touches spoke of things to come and whilst he liked to leave her wanting at the beginning, they both knew that there would be fulfillment at the end. 

After all this was a dance that they had practiced many times before. But this time was one that Hayley would not forget, she had craved him for so long that she wanted to loose herself in his smell and taste and essence that was Elijah, she knew that he truly was her soulmate. 

Later, when they were lying together cushioned on his clothes looking up at the night sky, Hayley turned his face towards her and smiled at him, repeating words from what seemed so long ago, a lifetime ago.

‘ I love you Elijah, I have always loved you.’

Hayley carefully stroked his face from eyebrow to jawbone and, looking deeply into his eyes asked where they went from here. 

Elijah still basking in the afterglow of their reunion shrugged, got up and began to put his clothes back on. 

‘We need to get dressed and go and speak to your family members i would like to recover all of my memories again and locate Niklaus if i can.’ 

All business again, well that was ever Elijah.

Arm in arm they walked back towards the dying embers of the fire and the lone guitarist. Jackson, could hear them walking towards him, in fact, he only started to play his guitar so he couldn’t hear other things that they may be doing. Jealously then, about this man and this woman had followed him into the afterlife. But Jackson always knew that no matter what he said, nor how the Mikaelson’s behaved towards his own people, that Hayley would always choose Elijah. 

They would always choose each other despite the Originals’ protestations that family always came first. It was simple really, Elijah adored Hayley and vice versa and nothing and no-one would get in the way. So, when they arrived at camp, Jackson did the only thing that he could do really, he lifted his hand in welcome and bid them to sit at the campsite. 

Eve and Mary also appeared from out of the trees and into the clearing by the Bayou and sat on various chairs and logs facing Elijah. They wanted to hear his story, needed to know what had happened, some of them had gleaned bits through the scrying caves, but there was nothing a dead person liked more than hearing a story directly from a newly dead source. 

‘So you see, the Dark Magic was transported back into Hope and she had started to suffer from the effects. I wanted to take the magic into my body, as I had already decided to end my life, but my brother had different ideas and had the magic siphoned off into him.’

Elijah looked into the distance, he didn’t want to recall his thoughts and feelings after he had got his memories back and then remembering the long waking hours wishing he could join Hayley. Each day for him had no other focus, it had been an unending pain, he just wished that he had had the courage, like Klaus had, to end it before now. 

Elijah then recounted the final days of the Mikaelson brothers to the wolves in the bayou, Freya’s wedding to Keelin and his time spent with Hope. 

In amongst the sadness there were moments of lightness as Elijah recalled driving with Hope in his Bentley, and commented that it could only have been Hayley that had taught her to drive, because she had a habit of driving through stop signs whilst talking animatedly to him.

Hayley laughed and commented that even though he had been a thousand year old vampire, who was nearly immortal, that he drove like an old woman, especially when he drove his precious Bentley. Even Elijah had to smile at that, after all she had a point. Hayley then recalled a number of occassions when Elijah had driven her in a very careful way but she had negated to add the speeding along the narrow mountain top road and the ensuing passion when they had reached the vantage point at the mountain summit. 

Hayley pointed out that Elijah wanted to find his brother and asked the other wolves how they had managed to locate each other and then live together in this plane of existence. Mary, being the most knowledgeable wolf looked to her husband and they both pointed to the scrying caves, and talked about wishing and using the still waters to locate potential friends and family but also enemies. But they were also very clear that Elijah needed to rest and recover all of his memories and feelings about his brother before he used that caves as it could be a long an frustrating process.

At the end of the evening , Hayley took Elijah's hand and led him through the wooded glade to a cabin on the edge of the bayou, she told him that he could rest in the cabin, and that she would join him later, she just needed to talk to the wolves first and then in the morning they could embark upon the task of finding Niklaus.


End file.
